Charles richey



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. G. RICHBY.

RAILROAD SWITCH.

No. 592,448. f Patented Oct. 26,1897.

//, l r l m: mams PETERS ce. PHOTO-umn, wAswNG-ron. mc.

lniTnn STATES PATENT Trice.

CHARLES RIOHEY, OF ATLANTA, GEORGIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONEIIALF TO WILLIAMFREEMAN, OF SAME PLACE.

RAILROAD-SWITCH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 592,448, dated October26, 1897. Application filed February 12, 1897. Serial No. 623,201. (Nomodel.)

To @ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES RICHEY, a citizen of the United States,residing at Atlanta,

in the county of Fulton and State of Georgia,

have invented a new and useful Railroad- Switch, of which the followingis a specification.

My invention relates to railway switch mechanism, and has for its objectto provide a simple, inexpensive, and efficient construction andarrangement of parts whereby the setting of the switch-rails to openeither the main track or the siding-track may be accomplished by meanscarried by the rollin g-stock of the road, as by the locomotive of atrain, the parts being so constructed and arranged as to prevent theadjustment of the switch mechanism manually or by any other means thanthose, as specified, which are carried by the rollingstock.

Further objects and advantages of this invention will appear in thefollowing description, and the novel features thereof will beparticularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings, Figure l is a plan view of a portion of a track towhich is applied a switch mechanism constructed in accordance with myinvention. Fig. 2 is a perspective view-of a switch-stand, trip, andconnections, the trip being arranged in the position which it occupieswhen the switch-rails are adapted to be set to open the siding-track byAan approaching train. Fig. 3 is a side view of a trip in the positionwhich it occupies when arranged to avoid contact with the wheels of therolling-stock, whereby the main track is permanently open. Fig. t is adetail view in perspective of the means for holding the switchlever inits position to maintain the main track open.

Similar numerals and letters of reference indicate corresponding partsin all the figures of the drawings.

l designates the main and 2 the siding track rails, while 3 4C representswitch-rails, respectively, arranged for alinementwith the main andsiding track rails and connected for simultaneous movement by aswitch-bar 5, an actuating-spring 0 being arranged in contact `with oneof the switch-rails, as the rail 4, to 1yieldingly hold the switch-railsin position to maintain the main track open.

Pivotally mounted upon one of the maintrack rails contiguous to the freeend of the switch-rail 3 is a trip 7, of which the long arm Sis fulcrumed at an intermediate point, while the short arm 9 is pivoted toits lower extremity and is capable of swinging movement to bring theshort arm into alinement with the long arm when, as illustrated in Fig.3, the long arm is in a horizontal position. The stop lO is formed onthe long arm for contact by the short arm to limit the independentswinging movement of the latter and hence maintain the short arm in aposition at right angles to the long arm, asillustrated in full lines inFig. 2. The short arm of the trip is terminally connected by flexiblemeans, such as a connection 1l, which traverses intermediatedirectioirpulleys l2, whereby when the trip is depressed in thedirection indicated by the arrow a in Fig. 2 said flexible connection isstrained, and the free end of the switchrail is removed from themain-track rail, in contact with which it is normally disposed.

The long arm of the trip normally occupies an upright position, wherebyit is adapted to be encountered by each wheel traversing the track uponwhich the trip is mounted, and as the free end of the trip whendepressed by means of an object passing thereover occupies a positioncontiguous tothe free end of the switch-rail it will be seen that awheel which has depressed the trip will immediately pass between thefree end of the switchrail 3 and the contiguous portion of thesiding-track, while the opposite wheel will be received by the free endof the switch-rail 4. In order to allow rolling-stock to pass out of thesiding-track or traverse the main track in the opposite direction tothat indicated by the arrow a, the long arm of the trip is Vprovidedabove the plane of its fulcrum,which consists of a transverse bolt orrock-shaft 13, with a j break-joint 14., said joint being provided witha stop l5, which prevents the folding section of the arm from beingadvanced in the direc tion of the arrow a beyond alinement with the mainsection of said arm. The position IOO of the foldingsection whenvdepressed by a wheel passing thereover lin the opposite direction tothat indicated by the arrow a is indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2.

From the foregoing description it will be seen 'that with only'thoseparts which have been described each train in approaching the switch inthe direction indicated by the arrow a would pass from the main trackonto the switch-rails 4, and thence pass to the sidingtrack; but it isdesirable to provide the switch with means whereby the main track may bemaintained permanently open, and in order to accomplish this I employ aswitch-lever 16, fulcrumed at an intermediate point upon a suitablestand and having its lower extremity connected by a pitman oroperating-rod 17- with an arm 18, fixed to t-he rock-shaft of the tripat the outer side of the main-track rail, the connection between theoperating-rod or pitman and said auxiliary arm being adjustable as bymeans of a fulcrum-pin 19 engaging a slot 2O in the arm.

The upper extremity of the switch-lever operatesin a segmental guide 21,carried by said stand, and at an intermediate point this guide is littedwith a clasp 22, consisting of duplicate oppositely-disposed springshaving concaved facing sides which combine to form a pocket for thereception of the extremity of the switch-lever, while the extremities ofthe spring are deflected, respectively, in opposite directions', asshown at 23, to facilitate the entrance of the end of the switch-leverinto the pocket.

and terminally curved Jforward in the direction of the arrow A are mainand auxiliary yielding fingers 24, adapted to be engaged by anactuating-arm 25, which is carried by the rollin gstock. In theconstruction illustrated this actuating-arm is pivotally mounted upon abracket 26, carried by the pilot of the engine, and attached thereto isan operating cord or chain 27, which extends through snitable guides andterminates within reach of the engineer-as, for'instance, within the cabof the engine. When the lengineerof an approaching train desires to movethe switchlever from the position shown in Fig. 2, (at which adjustmentthe trip is in the'upright position, also illustrated in Fig. 2, and isadapted to be engaged by the wheels of the train to open thesiding-track,) he extends the actuating-arm (see Fig. 2) to engage theforward or long actuating-finger of the switch-lever and thereby swingsthe switch-lever forward until its extremity is engaged by thespringclasp. When the switch-lever is in this position, the main or longarm of the trip is in thehorizontal position indicated in Fig. 3, andthe' trip is held in this position by the engagement of the clasp withthe switch-lever.

With the parts disposed as described the trip is out of the path ofpassing wheels, and hence trains pass without interference along themain track without danger of deflection of the switch-rails.

`When it is desired to set the trip for engagement by the wheels of atrain which it is Adesired to run upon the siding, the engineer of saidtrain extends the actuatingarm in the same manner as above described,and causes the same to engage the shorter finger of the switch-lever,which is then within reach by reason of the upright position of theswitch-lever, and thereby advance the switchlever out of the clasp andinto contact with a strong return-spring 28. This repression of -thereturn-spring continues until the actuatin g-arm on the engine slipsfrom the extremity of the shorter iin ger of the switch -lever,whereupon the expansive force of said spring throws the switch-leverthrough and beyond the clasp and returns it to the inclined positionillustrated in Fig. 2, whereby the trip is in the upright position inthe path of the wheels of a passing train. Hence inasmuch as theengineer of the approaching train has reset the switch-lever, andthereby adjusted the trip in advance of his train, the foremost wheelsof the train will come in contact with the trip and hence open thesiding-track.

It will be understood that each wheel traversing the track upon whichthe trip is mounted sets the switch-rail for itself, the trip returningafter each depression to its normal position in the path of thesucceeding wheel. This return of the trip is due to a yielding device,as a spring 29, which is connected to the auxiliary arm of the trip.Projecting upwardly from the switch-lever The trip mechanism ispreferably duplicated, as shown at 30, contiguous to the inside of thesiding-track rail, the same including a trip identical in constructionwith that hereinbefore described and having a flexible connection withthe free end of the switch-rail, whereby a train moving out of thesiding or in a direction opposite to that indicated by the arrow A willactuate the switch-rails.

Various changes in the form, proportion, and the minor-details ofconstruction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit orsacrificing any of the advantages of this invention.

Having described my invention, what I cl'aim is 1. In arailway-switchmechanism the combination with switch-rails yieldingly held in theirnormal position, of a pivotal tripv arranged contiguous to one of themain-track rails and operatively connected with the switch-rails,whereby when depressed in one direction it moves the switch-rails fromtheir normal position, the extremity of the trip, when depressed, toshift said rails being contiguous to the free end of the adjacentswitchrail, whereby the wheel which depresses the trip passes onto theswitch-rail before releasing the trip, substantially as specified.

2. In a railway-switch mechanism, the combination with switch-railsyieldingly held in IOO IIO

theirnormal position, of a pivotal trip iiexibly connected at its lowerend with the switchrails and yieldingly held in an upright position withits upper arm in the path of the wheels of rolling-stock, said arm beingadapted to be depressed in one direction to move the switch-rails out oftheir normal position, and being jointed above the fulcrum-point to foldin the opposite direction without affecting the lower portion of thetrip or the switchrails, substantially as specified.

3. In a railway-switch mechanism, the combination with switch-railsyieldingly held in their normal position, of a pivotal trip having amain arm fulcrumed upon a main-track rail in the path of the wheels ofrolling-stock, a short arm pivoted upon the main arm and having itsindependent movement limited by a stop, and connections between theshort arm and the switch-rail, the long arm being adapted to bedepressed in one direction to move the switch-rails out of their normalposition and to be moved in the opposite direction without affecting theswitch-rails, substantially as specified.

4. In a railway-switch mechanism, the combination with switch-railsyieldingly held in their normal position, of a trip having a long armfulcrumed at an intermediate point and jointed above its fulcrum to foldin one direction, the joint being arranged approximately in the plane ofthe tread of the contiguous main-track rail, a short arln pivotallymounted upon the lower end of the main arm and having its swingingmovement limited by a stop, and iexible connections between the eX-tremity of the short arm and the switch-rails, substantially as specied.

5. In a railway-switch mechanism, the combination with switch-railsyieldingly held in their normal position, a jointed trip having a longarm fulcrumed upon a n1ain-track rail and a short arm carried by thelong arrn and having a limited swinging movement, and connectionslbetween the short arm and the switch-rails, of a switch -leveroperatively connected with said trip, and a clasp arranged in the pathof and adapted to engage the switch-lever to secure the latter againstaccidental movement, the long arm of the trip being in a horizontalposition when the triplever is engaged in said clasp, substantially asspecified.

G. In a railway-switch mechanism, the combination with switch-railsyieldingly held in their normal position, a trip having pivotallyconnected long and short arms, of which the former is fulcrumed upon amain-track rail and the latter has a limited swinging movement withrelation thereto, and connections between the short arm of the trip andthe switch-rails, of a switch-lever connected with the trip and adaptedto swing the long arm thereof to its horizontal position out of the pathof passing wheels, a yielding clasp arranged in the path of and adaptedto engage the switch-lever, and a retracting-spring arranged beyond theclasp and adapted, when the switch-lever is released, after having beenbrought in contact with to depress the spring, to throw the switch-leverbeyond the clasp, substantially as specified.

'7. In a railway-switch mechanism, the combination with switch-railsyieldingly held in their normal position, a trip havingpivotallyconnected long and short arms, of which the former is fulcrumedupon a main-track rail and the latter has a limited swinging movementwith relation thereto, and connections between the short arm of the tripand the switch-rails, of a switch-lever connected with the trip andadapted to move the latter from its operative vertical to a horizontalposition out of the path of the wheels of rolling-stock, a clasp and acontiguous return-spring for respectively engaging and returning theswitchlever, lingers of different lengths carriedby the switch-lever,and means adapt-ed to bc carried by rolling-stock for engaging saidlingers separately, to accomplish the adjustment of the lever,substantially as specified.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixedmy signature in the presence ot' two witnesses.

CHARLES RICIIEY.

Witnesses:

JOHN H. SIGGERS, HAROLD II. SIMMs.

